Can street layouts affect residents’ health?

Mark White, president of the Powellhurst-Gilbert Neighborhood Association, sits in Raymond Park near his house. The Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability believes a lack of sidewalks and bike paths may be contributing to poor health of neighborhood residents.

Sometimes, a neighborhood’s street layout can be harmful to public health.

At least that’s why the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability is undertaking the Southeast 122nd Avenue pilot project, a study of the land-use, transportation and connectivity problems in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood and how they affect residents’ health.

Planners and public health advocates alike say the Southeast Portland neighborhood lacks sufficient through streets, sidewalks and paved roads, and that those deficiencies lead to obesity in residents and navigational problems for drivers of emergency vehicles.

“(Powellhurst-Gilbert) doesn’t have the sidewalks, commercial services or gathering places that other neighborhoods do,” said Barry Manning, who is heading up the project for the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. “We don’t think this is conducive to healthy living.

Residents are relieved to know the project is under way, said Powellhurst-Gilbert Neighborhood Association president Mark White.

White, an eight-year Powellhurst-Gilbert resident, said the neighborhood’s layout is sprawling and unconnected. Emergency vehicles, he said, have trouble navigating the roads.

White witnessed it firsthand on May 31, when Jefferson High School senior Borisshell Washington was shot and killed in Raymond Park, just blocks from White’s house. White said he heard the shot and the sirens that followed, and then rushed out of his home and saw an ambulance and fire engine creeping toward the park.

The drivers seemed lost, he said, because their emergency vehicles turned around and onto another road before returning and finally traveling on Holgate Boulevard to reach the park.

“It’s not good to put so many (people) into a place that has poor connectivity for vehicles,” White said.

He said he believes much of the damage in the neighborhood has already been done and that it will take close to a decade for any improvements to take place.

But Manning said the current study would lead to more formal plans starting in 2010.

The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability this past summer received a grant from the Northwest Health Foundation to continue to study health issues. The foundation has already determined that Powellhurst-Gilbert residents are the most obese in the city, and wants to work with the bureau to change that.

Chris Kabel is the program officer at the Northwest Health Foundation. He said there are more partnerships between planners and public health officials today than in the past. “For the most part, health has never been an explicit goal of planners,” he added. “This is something that we feel the city can take a lead on.”

There’s a compelling body of evidence that land use and transportation influence health, Kabel said. They affect whether a person chooses to walk, bike or drive. They affect where people purchase food. They also affect which doctors, if any, people see.

Most of the neighborhood’s problems, Manning said, date back to when it was part of unincorporated Multnomah County.

Before the neighborhood was annexed by the city, development was suburban and semi-rural. The neighborhood was characterized by low-density development on large lots, with spotty apartment complexes in outlying areas and commercial services located only at major street intersections.

Then, in 1996, the city rezoned the area to make it denser. This resulted in an infill building boom, especially near Southeast 122nd Avenue.

Another factor in obesity is the societal views of bicycling. Any film representation of biking shows an inept/goofy person in a silly outfit riding a bike.

Just ask obese people how they view bicycles and they’ll cite how dangerous they are. If you probe deeper, you’ll find that they think bicycles are ‘silly’ because of the film portrayals.

Walking is terribly dangerous in most areas of Portland because of the setup of intersections that have 3-way crossing with the major crossing “Closed” to pedestrians. A pedestrian therefore has to wait through 3 cycles of the light to cross the street. I challenge city planners to walk through like a citizen would have to for errands such as going to the market down the street from an apartment complex or house. 122nd has several of these Pedestrian Kill Zones.

Gas needs to get back up to $5/gallon, then people will start using alternate transportation again. The threshold for change is pain in the wallet.